THE GERMAN CARP IN THE UNITED STATES. 545 
Bremen to Baltimore, but, owing to a storm of unusual severity to 
which the vessel was exposed, all were lost on the way. Heimmediately 
returned to Europe, however, where, at Héchst, near Frankfurt, he pro- 
cured another lot of fish. These he succeeded in bringing in safety to 
New York, and on May 26, 1877, they were placed in ponds in Druid 
Hill Park, Baltimore. This lot consisted of 345 fish, of which 227 were 
naked and mirror carp, and 118 were common scale carp. The ponds 
at Druid Hill Park not being sufficient for the proper care of the fish, 
Congress allowed use to be made of the Babcock Lakes in the Monu- 
ment lot, in the city of Washington, and appropriated the sum of 
5,000 to put these in proper condition. In the following spring 
these ponds were ready for the reception of the fish, and 65 leather 
carp and 48 scale carp were transferred to them from the Druid Hill 
Park ponds. 
The fish that remained in Baltimore, under the care of Mr. T. B. 
Ferguson, spawned in 1878, but some gold-fish had entered the pond 
accidentally, and the carp hybridized with these, so that instead of hay- 
ing young true carp there were some 2,000 hybrid young. These 
were destroyed as being worthless. The results-were more satisfac- 
tory in 1879, in which year about 6,000 young were reared. Of these, 
2,750 were distributed to applicants throughout Maryland, the 
remainder in other states. In this year the fish in the ponds at 
Washington spawned for the first time, and about 6,000 were also 
reared there. Altogether, in 1879, some 12,265 carp were distributed 
to over 300 persons in 25 states and territories. Among the recipients 
were various state commissioners, who redistributed their fish to 
applicants in their respective states. 
Applications for carp had begun to come in as early as the fall of 
1876, and the number increased rapidly in the succeeding years. In 
1877 there were 22 applications, in 1878 144, and in 1879 235, while in 
1880 there were nearly 2,000. 
In 1879 new ponds were constructed at Druid Hill Park, and it was 
in this year, also, that a new importation of carp was made from Ger- 
many. These were brought over by Dr. O. Finsch (1882), a German 
naturalist, who obtained 100 mirrer carp from Mr. Eckhardt, of Liib- 
binchen. These were smail fish, a year and a half old and only 6 to 8 
inches long. Only 23 reached New York alive, although the water 
was aerated by pumping air into it, and ice was used to keep the tem- 
perature down. ‘The fish were shipped from Hamburg in coal-oil bar- 
rels, and Dr. Finsch attributes the large mortality to the fact that one 
of the barrels was not clean, and to the warm weather. The survivors 
arrived in New York on the 6th of May, whence they were shipped to 
Washington without loss and turned over to Mr. Hessel, the superin- 
tendent of the Washington ponds. 
F.C. 1904—35 
